A less government conservative Republican from Livingston County, MI
Opinions on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Livingston County Republican Party.
Chairman of LCRP since January 2013

Thursday, September 30, 2010

If you're going to take potshots at somebody for so called "ineffectiveness" then you better know how things work, know the rules of the game, and be able to say how you'd do things better besides vague BS.

Post took shots in a press release he sent to the media, and the story was in today's Argus. From the Argus

According to his figures, first-term Republican lawmakers on average introduced about 18 bills in the past two years, compared to Denby's seven.

The number of bills introduced don't make a rep effective. Neither do cosponsors. What they do is show what a sponsor/cosponsor feels about an issue. Nothing more, or less. The fact is this. You have a democrat house, by a big margin. That's the facts. If Cindy wants a bill passed, would it be more effective with a dem sponsor or republican sponsor providing all sides agree? A dem. Else, the bill will likely die in committee, which is the fate of most bills (unless a often nasty compromise). That's the way things work a majority of the time. Publicly, it's not Cindy's bill. In reality, it is. Those who don't know how things work, like Garry Post, do not understand that.

I feel I am campaigning on the promise of being a leader in the Legislature and not a mere follower," he said

By what? Being the heir of your mom and dad's landlord business?

Cosponsorships and sponsorships do not make you a leader and effective legislature. Good input on bills, good votes yea or nay, and being in touch with constituents do make you a good legislator. Cindy's not a braggart. That's not what she does. She shows up. She works hard, and gets things done. I've worked with her office in the past on issues even no longer being in that district. Cindy is effective. Garry Post at best has a nasty learning curve.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

While most of the hype in even numbered year elections goes to the gubernatorial race, there's plenty of other races that we will be voting on this year. If you are like me and not enthusiastic about taking one for the team in the gubernatorial race, there's others that are well worth our time, and candidates well worth our vote. Don't refuse to show up because of one person.

Supreme Court - THIS is one of the two most important races in 2010. Justice Robert Young is an incumbent of what was at one time considered by the Wall Street Journal the best Supreme Court in the country. Justice Elizabeth Weaver, the weakest member of the court IMO (including the democrats), is not running again, and we can have a major upgrade at that position. Judge Mary Beth Kelly will do a good job for us and deserves our support. DO NOT FORGET this race. The other judicial races are unopposed.

Secretary of State - We have a choice here between Ruth Johnson who has cleaned up corruption in Oakland County, and the leftist Secretary of State project supported by Convicted Criminal and corrupt insider trader George Soros. This is a clear choice. Ruth Johnson or Soros supporter Benson. Ruth Johnson needs to win.

AG - Bill Schuette has a record as a conservative. David Leyton's number one issue is the Obamacare lawsuit. He supports Obamacare.

School Boards are also up in some areas. There are contests in Brighton and Howell. Two openings. I'll try and get more posts on these before the elections as these are contested races.

Brighton:
Randy Swain - She ran in the past.
John Conely - I've seen his signs.
James Watters

Howell:
Patricia Howle
Jan Lobur
Michael Moloney - He's been active campaigning and has been saying the right things on fiscal matters. He deserves a listen.
Doug Moore - He was supported by the Concerned Taxpayer's Group PAC in the past.
James Pratt - Ran in the past. Fiscally liberal and socially conservative. Self pro-claimed "blue dog" democrat and Obama supporter who referred to tea party participants with a certain slur. He still isn't my last choice.
Jason Raines
Marcus Wilcox
Mike and Kim Witt - They are running as a team. Kim's liberal. I don't know about Mike.
Michael Yenshaw - Was appointed on the board and he lost election after the appointment.

Proposal 1 is the con-con. This is Pandora's box. I'm voting no, but we better be prepared for it passing.

Proposal 2 is a constitutional amendment relating to certain felons holding public office. I'm voting no. I don't support voting for felons for public officers, but do we need a constitutional amendment for it? I don't usually vote to amend the constitution unless there's a good reason. If we need to amend the constitution to prevent those with felonies regarding dishonesty or breach of public trust holding office, then we have a much deeper problem in this state. If voters are dumb enough to elect George Soros types (convicted of inside trading) or worse, then they deserve what they get. This will probably pass 80-20, but I'll be in the 20.

Marion Township has a 1 mill road millage.

Putnam Township has a fire millage increase. .4695 mills.

Dexter Library (part of Putnam Township?) has a .6925 mill increase.

Downticket is just as important as the top of the ticket, and gets the least amount of attention.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Last minute. Tonight (9-21-2010) from 7-9PM at the Salem-South Lyon library on Pontiac Trail, just south of 8 Mile in Salem Township in Washtenaw County.

There's a candidate forum that includes some Livingston County candidates, including the 22nd district state senate and 66th district state rep seat districts. If you want to see Joe Hune v his opponent and Bill Rogers v his opponent, they should be there.

Friday, September 17, 2010

I save the term RINO for real Republicans in name only. Olympia Snowe is not a RINO. She's a liberal republican. Lisa Murkowski is a RINO. She is running against a Republican as a write-in.

If you want to know why there's little tolerance for people the media calls moderates right now, it's because of this crap. If you lose, suck it up and come back six years later in the primary. Arlen Specter was not acceptable in the primary, he left to become a democrat. The democrats kicked that asshole to the curb. Specter got fired. Good riddance. Charlie Crist became a RINO and is running as a supposed independent because he couldn't take a primary. Wayne Gilchrist in 2008 lost his primary, endorsed the democrat and backed Obama. Lincoln Chafee backed Obama. Jim Leach backed Obama. Chuck Hagel backed Obama. Joe Schwarz backed Mark Schauer. Bob Inglis and Bob Bennett are having hissyfits and threatened 3rd party votes. Leftist Bill Milliken backed Obama and Kerry. We'll wait and see what Mike Castle does.

The NRSC and the DC establishment backs these RINOS in primaries. When they lose, these people, with republican money do a little hissyfit and back the democrats, run as supposed independents, or fail to accept that they lost because of their policies which were bad for their state in the eyes of their voters. Don't support TARP, dumbasses. You back things like TARP and support incompetent fools like Obama over your fellow "moderate" John McCain, and then expect us to support you? Go to hell.

What the US Senate Republicans need to do first is to kick Lisa Murkowski off of all committees unless she abandons the write in campaign. Announce that she won't get any committee seats if she wins her write in campaign. The people have spoken, and Joe Miller is our guy. If Murkowski wins as a write-in and caucuses with the democrats, we will all vote 100% against any bill she sponsors, and she will have no bills heard in committee if the Republicans take over the senate.

With the exception of THREE people (maybe four depending on what Doug Hoffman does), no "conservatives" turned RINO when facing defeat. The two exceptions are Colorado's Tom Tancredo, Texas's Ron Paul who I usually like (backed Constitution party candidate Chuck Baldwin), and John Kerry supporting Bob Smith in New Hampshire. The rest, when defeated, take one for the team as they are supposed to do. This is almost purely a liberal republican phenomenon. When Rick Snyder won, the other GOP candidates for governor gave him their support. All of them. Cox, George, Hoekstra, and Bouchard. Mark Kirk's opponent in the primary lost, and took it for the team. Chuck DeVore took one for the team when he lost to Fiorina. New Hampshire's race between a center-right and conservative candidate ended amicably.

There needs to be a sore loser law in all 50 states. If you lose your primary, you're out. No write-in. No third party. If you are running an election at one party, you can not switch in the middle of election season (Charlie Crist).

These punks need to get destroyed in politics, PERMANENTLY, by any legal means necessary.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Washington, D.C., Sep 13 - House Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) along with House Appropriations Ranking Member Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and House Budget Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-WI) today sent a letter to their respective Committee Chairmen requesting bipartisan action to help our nation’s economy create jobs.

House Republicans have proposed that Congress work in a bipartisan way to cut most non-security spending back to 2008 levels and to provide relief for our nation’s job creators by preventing the scheduled $3.8 trillion tax hike that will raise taxes on the vast majority of small businesses.

2008 is still a deficit. It needs to be cut back to at least 2000 to get a START. I prefer further than that and to start attacking the principle of the national debt.

We can't go to halfway measures like "cutting the growth" of government or smaller deficits. We need to balance the budget, period, end of story.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

I thought Castle was going to pull it off in Delaware, but I was wrong about it. If I lived in Delaware, I wouldn't care for either of my two choices (O'Donnell for non-ideological reasons like frivolous damages claims in a lawsuit) but would have done a one time only vote for liberal republican Castle for pragmatic reasons. Delaware is a social liberal state with heavy Philadelphia area influence.

I think the pundits are missing the point with the O'Donnell win and I think this still goes way beyond "tea party" and "moderate" and "liberal" and "conservative reasons." This stuff has been stewing since 2006, caught fire in 2008, and exploded with the stimulus and Obamacare. Spending and big government is one big issue, but the other one is simply attitude.

I was a family member's house last night and saw this headline on the TV. "NRSC won't spend money on this race." That's the problem that so many of the conservative base AND independents have, beyond any ideology. First off, even if the NRSC isn't going to donate money, they need to shut the hell up. Don't give away your game plan. Don't automatically write off competitive seats like a pussycat. Nobody respect that, from any ideology. Where a lot of the disconnect is though between the base, the tea party, Washington, and establishments is this attitude. Who works for who. The establishment and DC leadership thinks they are in charge, they pick their candidates, they appoint party leadership, and that they lead the way and that the base should follow their lead, no matter what. Grass roots vs professionalism, and they believe they are the professionals. That works when everyone is on the same page. When it isn't, then it doesn't work. Neither the base or the independents like being dictated to.

The difference today than in the past is this. Conservative independents (Where most tea party activists fall) and the base republicans no longer are accepting dictates from party leadership. In the minds of most, they FUBARed the situation. A lot of this is aimed at NRSC and to a lesser extent RNC (Steele's foot in mouth). NRSC tried to run off candidates in primaries in favor of RINO's. Castle isn't a RINO. He's a liberal. Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter were RINO's. Now they are democrats. Lisa Murkowski is showing RINO tendancies and may run as a write in. Lincoln Chafee is a RINO who endorsed Obama. Joe Schwarz was a RINO on the house side and backed Mark Schauer. Why the hell are these idiots getting support from leadership IN PRIMARIES. Leadership needs to stay out of primaries and let the state electorate make the decision in the primary. It's leadership's job to elect republicans, not the coronation of their candidates.

In this election season, the majority of time the leadership has dictated a candidate, that candidate was defeated in the primary. That ought to send a message to DC, but DC doesn't get it at all. Charlie Crist quit and ran as a so called independent. Arlen Specter switched primaries and lost anyway. Bob Bennett's bailout votes cost him his job. Bob Inglis lost. Parker Griffith lost. Castle lost. Their preferred primary candidates in Colorado, Nevada, and Kentucky lost too. In Wisconsin, California, and Washington, their preferred candidate won. In New Hampshire (close to call), their candidate is winning barring recount. In Wisconsin, Washington, and New Hampshire, the preferred candidate is acceptable to many of the base as well.

What needs to happen:

1. Leadership needs to stay out of primaries and stop running their mouths. Primaries are decided by state voters, not leadership. Save your money, time, and mouths for the general election.

2. The base that does not like the "coronation" candidate needs to pick someone better who can win. Pat Toomey and Marco Rubio were very good choices. Others aren't.

3. Losers in primaries need to suck it up and take it for the team. One BIG reason a lot of so called establishment "moderates" are almost despised more than democrats are due to people like Charlie Crist, Arlen Specter, Joe Schwarz, Wayne Gilchrist, Lincoln Chafee, and many so called conservative pundits, Bush administration people (Dowd, McKinnon) and columists in the 2008 election. These assholes (not all moderates, but those I named) got their candidate who they demanded elected (McCain) in the primary, and then go out and endorse a leftist like Obama in the general. Many have LONG memories on that.

4. Pick a better establishment. Marco Rubio said this in his primary against Crist. This is most important. In the end, the establishment is picked by apathy. Party leadership (outside of caucus - NRSC, NRCC, etc) is elected. It's elected by activists. We need to do our homework and make sure the right people are elected. For me it is those that have their ear to the ground and at the same time are strong competent individuals who are good administrators and want to win in the fall.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

MENOMONIE, Wis. (WTAQ) - Two Menomonie men have been charged with election fraud, for allegedly voting in both Wisconsin and Minnesota in the 2008 presidential contest.

The charges are apparently the first from an ongoing investigation in which officials have compared voting records from both states.

When it was first reported earlier this year, the probe was said to be focused on college students who live in one state and go to school in the other.

In one of the Menomonie cases, a voter was accused of voting at the polls in western Wisconsin and with an absentee ballot near Saint Paul. The other was accused of voting at the polls in both states.

Personally, if they are guilty, they should get two years in maximum security and have to deal with people like Theodore Bagwell in the TV show Prison Break. If elections can't be trusted with integrity, there is nothing except the 2nd Amendment fallback. I'm glad it's there, but let's not get to that point.

Wisconsin's AG, JB Van Hollen, is going after this crap, and give him some credit for doing so.

I'm not surprised at all this is in Minnesota too. This is a state run by a candidate supported by convicted inside trader George Soros and his Secretary of State Project candidate, Mark Ritchie.

(Mary) Kiffmeyer is "absolutely sure" that Ritchie's efforts to eliminate voting regulations ensured Franken's victory.
"The first thing he did when he got into office was to dismantle the ballot reconciliation program we started. Under that program districts are required to check that the number of ballots issued by matching them with the number of ballots cast," she said, "that way we know immediately that the vote count is accurate."
But that isn't what happened, she said. We now have 17,000 more ballots cast than there are voters who voted and no way to determine what went wrong. Why anyone would eliminate that basic check, I don't know," she said.

Both Franken and Obama, by the way, were endorsed by ACORN Votes, ACORN's federal political action committee.

Minnesota's secretary of state isn't a Democrat by happenstance.

Ritchie, who defeated two-term incumbent Republican Mary Kiffmeyer in 2006, received an endorsement and financial assistance for his run from a below-the-radar non-federal "527" group called the Secretary of State Project. The entity can accept unlimited financial contributions and doesn't have to disclose them publicly until well after the election.

The founders of the Secretary of State Project, which claims to advance "election protection" but only backs Democrats, religiously believe that right-leaning secretaries of state helped the GOP steal the presidential elections in Florida in 2000 (Katherine Harris) and in Ohio in 2004 (Ken Blackwell).

The secretary of state candidates the group endorses sing the same familiar song about electoral integrity issues: Voter fraud is largely a myth, vote suppression is used widely by Republicans, cleansing the dead and fictional characters from voter rolls should be avoided until embarrassing media reports emerge, and anyone who demands that a voter produce photo identification before pulling the lever is a racist, democracy-hating Fascist.

......

Most media reports also leave out the fact that Ritchie has extensive ties to the controversial in-your-face direct action group, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), whose employees have been implicated in electoral fraud time and time again.

In 2006, the Minnesota ACORN Political Action Committee endorsed Ritchie and donated to his campaign. According to the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, contributors to Ritchie's campaign included liberal philanthropists George Soros, Drummond Pike, and Deborah Rappaport, along with veteran community organizer Heather Booth, a Saul Alinsky disciple who co-founded the Midwest Academy, a radical ACORN clone. One article on Ritchie's 2006 campaign website brags about the fine work ACORN did in Florida to pass a constitutional amendment to raise that state's minimum wage.

ACORN got their man in. Their man made sure Stuart Smalley became a senator. The good news is that Mark Ritchie is running for re-election in Minnesota. Hopefully, the good people there throw his sorry ass out.

The other major win for the Secretary of State Project is Ohio's Jennifer Brunner.

Brunner has been a disaster in Ohio, unless you are trying to rig the game for the dems. There was tons of shadiness in Ohio for the 2008 election. The good news about Brunner is that she's running for US Senate where she can do less damage, even if she wins.

Brunner made news in October 2008 when she declined to hand over to county election boards 200,000 names on voter registration forms where the drivers license or Social Security number on the forms did not match the name. The SoS project praised her actions.

Blackwell's office was one of the first and most critical offices claimed by SOSP. He was succeeded in 2006 by Jennifer Bruner, who received $167,000 in campaign contributions from SOSP, and immediately began a complete overhaul of Ohio's voting system. Among the changes she made were allowing election day registration and the failure to purge election rolls of ineligible and dead voters.
Her most memorable moment was when a federal court judge ruled that she had violated federal law for "not taking adequate steps to validate the identity of newly registered voters." At the time she admitted that there were "discrepancies" in about 200,000 new registrations but refused to allow polling workers to take action on the questionable ballots.

When Jennifer Brunner defeated incumbent Kenneth Blackwell in Ohio in 2006, twelve of the eighteen individuals who contributed the maximum $10,000 to Brunner's campaign resided in states other than Ohio. (One of those donors, incidentally, was Teresa Heinz Kerry.) Said Brunner, "I received significant support from the SoS Project, which helped me toward the election."

Brunner went on to make her influence felt in the 2008 election cycle, when she ruled that Ohio residents should be permitted, during the designated early-voting period extending from late September to early October, to register and vote on the very same day. Citing the potential for voter fraud under such an arrangement, Republicans objected. But on September 29 of that year -- the day before early voting was scheduled to commence -- the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed Brunner's decision.

In a separate matter, Brunner sought to effectively invalidate a million absentee-ballot applications that Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign had issued. Each of those applications had been inadvertently printed with an extra, unnecessary checkbox, and Brunner maintained that if a registrant failed to check the box — even if he or she signed the form — the application could be rejected. On October 2, the Ohio Supreme Court overturned Brunner's directive on grounds that it served "no vital purpose or public interest."

Brunner's most noteworthy claim to fame took place in October 2008, when she refused to provide county election boards approximately 200,000 voter-registration forms in which the name did not match the driver's license or Social Security number.

Count the dems, and reject the GOP votes. Boss Tweed would be proud. That's what the Sec of State Project wanted, and what they got.

Brunner is Jocelyn Benson's mentor.

We can not let this happen. We need to support Ruth Johnson for Secretary of State so we can have fair elections here in Michigan. Defeat the Ritchie and Brunner clones. Defeat Benson, by any legal means necessary.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Mike Castle has my least favorite voting record. 99 out of 100 times, I would not vote for him in either the primary OR general. Nothing personal, but he's a gun grabber who voted for cap and trade. Dealbreaker twice over. If he was running in the house re-election, I probably wouldn't vote for him. However, I need his committee vote in the senate in the outside chance that Harry Reid gets fired.

Mike Castle is running against national tea party and Palin supported Christine O'Donnell. While O'Donnell is better on views, she can't win in November. It's not because of her views or Castle's local popularity that she can't win. It's because of her own past. Redstate got off this bandwagon for a good reason.

O'Donnell alleged in a July 1, 2005 complaint filed in district court that she had been demoted because ISI's conservative philosophy dictated that women must be subordinate to men. She claimed she was fired when she contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding her demotion. ISI told the Delaware News Journal that she had been "terminated for operating a for-profit business."

First off, it's rare that employment reasons for termination are even mentioned in public. That looks cut and dry to me. Jeopardizing a non-profit. The response? A frivolous lawsuit.

Up to $3,952,447 in "Direct Damages, including back pay" and "lifetime lost income and liftetime damage to reputation."

--Up to $3.5 million in punitive damages for "willful, legally-malicious and outrageous conduct" by ISI.

Lifetime lost income? You got to be kidding me. There's much worse at that article. Castle's wrong, but he's not a clown.

In addition to all that, Delaware is Delaware. It's a fiscal mostly liberal, pro-corporate, and social liberal state. It's the exact opposite of my views, basically. The best we can get there is another Bill Roth type. Castle isn't as good as Roth, but it's him or a clown like O'Donnell who will lose simply for being a clown even taking views out of the equation.

Why would I hold my nose there for someone like Castle this one time only? Two reasons. Committee votes and the fact that he'll take over IMMEDIATELY. This does not wait till January when the rest of the senate gains happen. Right now we need Brown, Snowe, and Collins all to be on board if there is a filibuster. Castle gets at least some breathing room, and Coons will make it even tougher with the vacancy. If a gun vote comes up, at least we got Ben Nelson, Jim Webb, and Jon Tester as reliable democrats on that one issue, and I don't expect that in lame duck. Cap and trade is a risk. Coons will vote for it. I guarantee it. Castle will too. That's why I said one time only.

We need 10 pickups to get the senate. That gives us control of committees and determines what will be heard and not heard.

The better chances for major pickups will happen in 2012 and 2014 as those are six years after the wave years by the dems. This year, take what you can get, and kick Reid out of majority leader, Schumer off of judiciary leadership, Dick Durbin off of whatever committee he leads, etc, etc.

To the National Tea Party and Sarah Palin, pick better battles. This one isn't one you want to be on. One look at the complaint report shows that O'Donnell is bad news.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Politico is commenting the 2012 jockeying for the GOP challenger to the clustermuck currently living in the White House.

For decades it has been a truism that presidential campaigns just keep starting earlier and earlier. The 2012 Republican contest is hitting the brakes on that historic trend.
Even with President Barack Obama’s numbers slipping — and the Republican nomination starting to resemble a prize worth winning — the primary is on track to start later, and more cautiously, than it has in recent years.

There really isn't much said except that there is jockeying for position and waiting games.

Here's the thing. The frontrunner at this time, if any, may have very well been Former Senator and Governor George Allen. That was derailed on November 2006 when he lose re-election. Two years is a long time.

They listed Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, and Tim Pawlenty. On my own personal list, I have eliminated Romney and Palin. Romney is anti-gun and put in his own Obamacare with mandates. I also didn't like how some of his national staffers (who joined McCain) treated Palin, throwing her under the bus even before the election was over. Palin lost me when she quit as governor of Alaska. You fufill your contracts. Besides that, no 08 re-treads.

While I'd like to see Mike Pence jump into the race, I'll consider Barbour, Daniels, and Pawlenty. Barbour is where I'd lean right now, even though he's a little more establishment than I'd like. Barbour however is one thing that Obama is not, or frankly even Bush is not. Strongly Competent. Barbour government Mississippi through its biggest issue since the Civil Rights battles. Hurricane Katrina. Barbour is a contrast to Blanco in Louisiana and the mayor Nagin in New Orleans. Daniels has by all accounts I've seen, done a good job in Indiana. Pawlenty has won twice in Minnesota, a democrat state. None of them are part of the Washington cluster.

There may be more late bloomers after 2010, and I'll look more at 2012 after the 2010 elections when things can be analyzed with hard facts and data instead of speculation.

There's a lot of pundits out there who run their trap. Three of them are worth listening to. Michael Barone (Almanac of American Politics), CQ Politics, and Charlie Cook. They do the major district by district reports every two years. For national pundits, they are quite good. Barone is moderate to conservative and Cook is a former democrat staffer. There's some slight bias, but they are professionals in their analysis first.

As early as the summer of 2009 there were growing warning signs that Democrats might face a tough midterm election this year. President Obama's job approval rating among the key bloc of independent voters, which was in the 60s before Memorial Day of last year, dropped to the 50s over the course of the summer and into the 40s around Labor Day. That number has hovered around 38-40 percent over the last few months. Independents voted for congressional Democrats by 18 points in 2006 but by 8 points in 2008. .....

For a long time it was primarily the "macro-political," national polling data that was pointing to increasing signs of major Democratic midterm losses, while Democratic fortunes in individual races looked fine. But there began a gradual erosion in strength on a district-by-district basis, with incumbent Democrats in swing or Republican-leaning districts looking increasingly endangered while their colleagues in some more reliably Democratic seats began to look softer in their support and more vulnerable to a significant challenge. In recent months, the national data reflecting a reversal of the 2006 and 2008 trends -- namely, independent voters swinging strongly toward Republicans and a strong partisan enthusiasm gap favoring Republicans -- began arguing that Republicans were in line to win a majority in the House with significant gains in the Senate.

In recent weeks, though, the district-by-district deterioration has reached the tipping point. It can now be said that Republicans will likely take back the House. An individual race analysis points to GOP gains of over 40 seats in the House, but the national polling suggests gains substantially higher than that.

While the individual race-by-race approach to analyzing House seats works great in "normal" election years, it invariably underestimates what happens in wave years, and the evidence is indisputable that this is a wave year.

First off, nothing is over until election day.

That said, even if it is close, this is a major turnaround and shows how long ten years are in politics. In the mid 90's, there was talk of a permanent democrat majority. In 1994, the Republicans stunned Washington. In 2002 and 2004, there was talk of re-alignment for the Republicans. In 2006, the democrats took congress. In 2008, there was talk of a permanent democrat majority again with Obama's "rock star" realignment. Now in 2010, it looks like the dems may lose congress because Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are finally seen nationwide as the failures I knew they were from the beginning.

However, I'm concerned the GOP is winning by default. 2010 does not equal 2012. 1996 was a democrat year after the 94 revolution. 1998 was dependant on the state (Republican here, democrat elsewhere. Clinton adapted, and rolled over the GOP when the establishment senate caved on everything. Sounds familiar? As much of a failure Obama is, he's nothing compared to the US Senate. The Senate gave us the bailouts. The senate gave us a worse health care bill than the house. The senate is pushing big on cap and trade. Etc. Etc.

This is not 1994. 1990 and 1992 were not wave elections. This is a first time in a long time we've had three wave elections in a row. There's been two in a row before - 84/86, but I don't remember the last time there was three. Maybe Roosevelt era. What is the common factors in these three wave elections. Big spending. Big government. More of the same after the change. Corruption. Arrogance. Incompetence.

Katrina was the death nail in Bush's coffin. There was no change after 06, but Bush took blame in 08, cemented with congressional idiots with bridges to nowhere and bailouts. McCain lost his chance at a Hail Mary pass to win when he supported the bailout. With Obama, there's all of the bad of the Bush administration and none of the good. Big spending. Big government. More Keynesian economics which showed itself a failure in the 70's. Stimulus packages. Spending. Record Debt.

It looks like the GOP will win - by default, much as the dems won by default twice. However, the GOP will have to push hard with solid plans, fiscal responsibility, a middle finger to K-Street insiders and Washington/NRSC establishment, and an ear to the ground, or they will be tossed out. Some say this is just an anti-incumbent wave. Some say it is anti-democrat. They are both right. Look at all the incumbents fired this year already, as well as the loss of several establishment favored candidates.

This potential "win" is nothing unless real less government changes are made. If the GOP wins, and acts like Obama-lite, or Granholm-lite with big government statism, then they need to be fired in the primary in two or four years.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

When given the chance this election season, Republican voters are tossing out hidebound incumbents and ushering in new blood, sending a signal to the GOP establishment that the flip-flopping and rampant spending of the latter Bush years won’t be tolerated.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who’d boasted of her Appropriations Committee power over pork-barrel spending, learned that lesson last week — conceding defeat to upstart challenger Joe Miller, an Iraq War veteran and Tea Party favorite.

The Post goes through all of the list. Inglis. Bennett. Specter. Crist. I've been pushing for this since 2006. In 2006, Mike Pence and the Republican Study Committee had a contract and a balanced budget proposal that was shot down by DC Establishment. The result was an ass whooping. The message wasn't received in 2008. The result was another ass whooping. Now it's 2010 and the democrats made the same mistake and look like they will get an ass whooping of their own (whether it costs control of the house or senate remains to be seen).

It's not just the taxes or Obamacare. It's the spending, and the tea party roots came in with the bailouts (which destroyed McCain's chances for good) and Stimulus package.

Bottom line is this. Less spending. Less government. More freedom. If you support this, you'll win. If you don't, there's the door. You're fired. Security will escort you out of the building.

Whether the GOP newbies win in November isn’t the point. The turnover shows that Republican voters aren’t just upset about Obama and Democrats. Instead, they’re demanding principled conservative behavior from members of their party as well.

Friday, September 03, 2010

Awhile back, Judy Daubenmier, Kevin Shopshire, (both former reporters part of the media) and the local democrats were going crazy about one of our county commissioners who was unopposed for election, from clicking the waiver wire. It was a mistake, a blunder, since corrected, but wasn't front page material.

The post primaries were due yesterday. After this broad shot fired across the board, I'm here to show in spades that those in glass houses should not throw stones. Whether it was due to malfeasance or just incompetence, Judy Daubenmier's crew screwed up. If you are going to fire off, you better be clean, because I can find where the skeletons are buried.

First, disclaimers. This violates the spirit of the law, and also the letter if internet websites are considered "print" or "broadcast" ads. Who paid for the dem commissioner websites? I'll get to that in a minute.

Disclaimer requirements are found here with the Secretary of State - http://www.michigan.gov/documents/APPENDIX_J__157779_7.pdf

The democrat commissioner candidates (almost all of them) have copyrights, but their website ads have no "Paid for by Committee" and no "Committee's Address." listed. Copyrights aren't the same as "paid for" disclaimers. I have them here printed off as well in case they change things quickly and then say it didn't happen.

Who paid for their sites? The Livingston County Democrats, which did not report that in their campaign finance reports. How do we know that. First, all their sites are based on the Kelly Raskauskas site, which has no disclaimer. They look the same for the most part, some doing a better job updating than others. That means the same people are likely behind all of the websites. There's nothing wrong with that on its face. That's legal, if it is disclosed.

I checked Network Solutions to see who the site contacts were. For all of them except Kelly's site which used a proxy. Jon Jenkins (livcodems@xxxxx.com) XXXXX Grand River, Brighton MI 48116. That the democrat party HQ. Registrant, and most important - Billing contact. I caught this around July 23rd or so around pre-primary time. County democrats paid for this, and need to report it as an in-kind expenditure or as a direct expenditure. Those websites were not reported. I was waiting till September 2nd to see what was covered in the required post-primary if they spend money on the primary elections.

Those sites need to say "Paid for by Democrats Destroyed Detroit, Address, city, MI," or at least their party name.

Secondly, corporate money was used to fund the democrats county party. That's bigtime illegal. Anyone that knows anything about campaign finance laws know that corporations can not donate money directly to campaigns. The Culprits are Maverick Projects Limited. PO Box 484, Howell. 48844. Corporate number 040227. Eds Sports Equipment Sales. **** Culver (home address, so it is withheld). Brighton 48116. Corporate number 146068. Not every business account is a corporation, and non corporate business donations ARE legal, as long as it is reported by the owner or partner making the contribution. I can donate from my business account, which is not a corporation. It would have to be reported as my name, not the company's. These are illegal donations that must be returned, or they are guilty of a criminal offense. It does not take long to find out whether a business is a corporation, LLC, Partnership, or Sole Proprietorship. The State has listing of all business licenses. If it's not listed with the state, it means it isn't a corporation.

Other interesting things I noticed are as follows.

Amir Baghdadchi, Candidate for County Commissioner in Hamburg Township. On his May 14th (after filing deadline), 2010 donation to county party, he listed his address city as Northville, Michigan. Northville is mostly in Wayne County, with a small part in Oakland County. None of it is in Hamburg. Where does his live? Hamburg or Northville?

David Berry's employer is Solidarity House. UAW. Berry is a candidate for county commissioner. I don't think we need the UAW's politics on the county board. The UAW's knee jerk democrat politics is as much of the problem with jobs as management. They even sold out on outsourcing with the GM strike negotiations in the 1990's.

Mike McGuinness is also a supporter. Right Michigan has the story on him. He was until recently the chair for Oakland County Democrats. His employee and roommate, Jason Bauer, was the guy who notorized ineligible candidates for the BSTP. Dogs and fleas come to mind.

With all the wailing, press releases, and yapping coming from Judy Daubenmier and Kevin Shopshire, you would think that the county democrats would make sure their bases are covered, that they dotted their i's, crossed their t's, and make sure everything is legitimate. Instead, they try to pass this junk off as acceptable. It's unacceptable. We have a well run county here thanks to the Republicans. Democrats on the other hand destroyed Detroit. Now the democrats want us to pass the best county in southeast Michigan to the same people that take illegal donations and do not tell us who paid for their stuff.